A U.S. man who filed a defamation lawsuit against the Dixie Chicks has been ordered to pay singer Natalie Maines' legal costs.
In 2007, Maines made comments about the murder of three young boys in Arkansas in 1993. She was speaking out to defend a trio of men who were convicted of the crime as teenagers and placed on death row in West Memphis, Arkansas.
Maines supported the 'West Memphis Three' by appearing at rallies and even suggested that Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of murdered boy Stevie Branch, was implicated by DNA evidence found at the crime scene.
The allegation prompted Hobbs to file a lawsuit in 2008 but it was thrown out of court in December (09) after a judge ruled the bereaved stepfather could not establish "actual malice" on the part of Maines.
And now he has been ordered to pay $17,590 (£11,727) to cover Maines' legal fees, reports the Associated Press.